President Trump made history by becoming the third U.S. president to be impeached by the House of Representatives.
The House voted to impeach Trump on two charges: 1) abuse of power and 2) obstruction of Congress. Not a single Republican supported either impeachment article, making the impeachment a completely partisan affair. A handful of Democrats did break with their party. Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democratic presidential candidate, voted “present” on both articles, while Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson and New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew voted against both articles. A fourth congressman, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, split his vote between the two articles.
This was arguably the most predictable thing to happen in an otherwise unpredictable presidency. Democrats have been calling for impeachment ever since Trump took office and since they gained control of the House.
Now that Democrats got their wish in impeaching Trump, surely the walls are closing in on him, right? Enter Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
On the Senate floor on Thursday, McConnell criticized House Democrats for their impeachment efforts, saying, “This particular House of Representatives has let its partisan rage at this particular president create a toxic new precedent that will echo well into the future.”
McConnell has been clear on the subject of impeachment: It’s a shoddy argument that doesn’t meet the threshold for impeachment or removal of a president.
So, what happens now?
As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delayed the process of sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate for a trial, it could end up that the articles are never sent at all and the Democrats’ impeachment effort dies. If it is sent to the Senate, it is almost guaranteed that a Republican-controlled legislative body will vote along party lines and acquit Trump of both charges.
So, if impeachment is doomed to fail in the Senate, why even impeach Trump to begin with?
MSNBC’s Katy Tur pretty much gave away the Democratic playbook after Trump was impeached, writing on Twitter, “No matter what happens next, even if the Senate acquits him, even if he is re-elected, he will forever have an asterisk next to his name.”
He’s now only the third president in American history to be impeached.
No matter what happens next, even if the Senate acquits him, even if he is re-elected, he will forever have an asterisk next to his name.
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) December 19, 2019
All this talk from Democrats about defending the Constitution is a fallacy. Impeachment was always about getting under Trump’s skin, if not defeating him in the 2020 presidential election. Democrats are banking on the electorate being too ignorant to understand the whole impeachment process is a partisan hack-job that lost its credibility. The only question that remains is, “How soon will this backfire on Democrats?”
